78 comments:

Q. I was wondering if there is a way to automate your Unfold Tool to step along an object and 'flatten' as it encounters an edge ?

I have used Ruby to generate a 3D shape of a curled ribbon that curves around and angles to the side (can email you the model noting it is still evolving) and I wish to use your Unfold Tool to make the final shape flat so I can mark out and cut some tin sheet to make the curled shape in real life.

We have a characteristic direction (along the length of the ribbon) to get to the next face (and edge) on which to unfold, however, there are lots-and-lots of edges as I have used lots of 'step' increments in my script, which makes it near impossible to do by hand.

Than you Sooooooo much!I just found your unfold tool yesterday, and it has totally transformed my work process. I create folding boats and furniture from plastic sheets, and in the past it was a very tedious process to do a 2d drawing in illustrator, print it out, fold it up and then go back to the drawing and tweak and repeat endlessly.

Now I just make my finished product in sketchup and unfold it and print it out!

I could only wish for a couple of features:

A way to easily refold the shapes, as sometimes unfolding reveals a shape that is impossible to fold out of a flat panel, so I have to tweak it and fold it up again to see how the tweaks changed things.

A way to compensate for thickness in the final product, as that affects the final dimensions.

I would be willing to pay for these features to be implemented(especially the first one) if it is not too expensive.

I just learned a new trick with the unfold tool. I often get into a situation where I have partially unfolded a model and I realize that I missed a panel or I did the unfolding in the wrong order so some parts of the model were left behind in the unfolding process.The trick is that whatever panels you have selected will be moved to the angle of the next panel you select, so you can select any arbitrary panels (connected or not) and they will unfold to the next panel you touch.

That probably is totally incoherent to anybody who does not already know the trick... Maybe I will do a movie to illustrate it.

One question: how to make unfolded objects flatten to the ground plane automatically? The most time-consuming step for me now is rotating resultant objects in 3D to form my cutting list.

And a wish-list item: a packing plugin, which would rotate and translate flat objects to fill a rectangle of given proportions with reasonable efficiency. To reduce material wastage... A tall order, I know!

Jim, thanks for getting back to me! Not sure if I totally get the workaround - doesn't seem to be doing the trick - but maybe there's already another plugin out there to rotated objects in 3d to place on the X Y plane. Still, much appreciated.On the packing idea, that would probably need a lot of thinking! I know people charge a pretty penny for those apps due to their usefulness in saving material in manufacture, but wonder how complex the maths behind it really is...Thanks again.

FanTAStic tool. Saves me having to learn Rhino at the moment :) One question- I have the same problem, where some planes UNfold like they should, and other planes fold back on to the adjacent plane I chose- like folding the flaps of a cardboard box into the box instead of opening the box. How can I fix this or what to do about it?

Hi,new to sketchup, but love this plugin! I am designing some models to make into paper models. I have tried Waybe plugin, but find it unreliable! With yours I can unfold easily and add tabs wherever I want afterwards.I've done this on my model. I've then rotated each part of the model and put them all flat next to each other. Any idea how I can then print them out on paper at the correct size? I can't see how to do it. I could also do with being able to save it as a flat file picture that I can colour in in an art package......any help gratefully received!!

Make sure that your camera is set to 'parallel projection', not perspective. ( Camera > Parallel Projection )

Now zoom in/out to make sure that you can only see the unfolded pieces. (Otherwise Sketchup may try to print other parts of your model, which will result in it spreading the printout across multiple pages - bad as it will probably cut some of your pieces in half.)

Anyone/Bruce - I just can't make this work on my mac - how did you load it?I put it in the right folder but it doesn't show up in the extensions tab of prefs dialog. I tried changing the extension to .plugin like the other plugins, but no change. Help!

Jimma - Locate Sketchup in apps folder, right click on it and select 'show package contents'. Click contents and put this plugin file into the plugins folder.

Hi there JimI;ve been using your unfold tool for a while now to make paper models of buildings. Great work! your tool simplifies the unfold.

Recently I've been working on a way to unfold a model to uv map it and at the same time retain the base model. I've written a tutorial expalining how I went about it at http://www.resentmentpublications.com/downloads/SUUVMAP.pdf.I'm no Ruby programmer, but I thought you might have suggestions on how to automate the process. One of the Sketchucation members created a small plugin to automate the Make Group/Make Component part of it. This is rather cool as it sped up the process.CheersBob

an auto unfolder on marked object with adding the glueing "flaps" would be nice, also so it can autosize it to an A4 paper so it wont be cut on the print. naturally it will fill the paper as mush as it can.

We are building three funerary urns for the Samuel Beckett play "Play", out of MDF covered with a 16 sided polygon of hardboard and then modelling clay. I was trying to unfold the hardboard, but it doesn't keep the successive faces adjacent to each other when unfolded - they get further and further apart.

See http://www.abbeytheatre2.org.uk/2008-09/07_three_beckett_plays/segment_unfolding.jpg for an image of the segment, and the result of unfolding.

Any suggestions please, as to whether this is me not understanding how to use the Unfold Tool, or a possible bug in the program?

I can email a copy of the relevant part of the model if that would help.

I've tried that, but while it does unfold contiguously, I can't get it to unfold onto the x-y plane.

I used Alt+click to select the rectangle in the x-y plane so as (I thought) to set the plane to unfold to, then click the next face (the first sloping one). What happens is that the rectangle swings round to the slope, rather than the reverse and successive clicks then unfold successively (as wanted) but end up at the slope of the uppermost face.

It is of course possible to then rotate the unfolded segment down to the x-y plane, but surely there's an easier way?

Or having selected the plane, should I unfold from the top down?

How do I get it to unfold onto the x-y plane?

See www.abbeytheatre2.org.uk/www.abbeytheatre2.org.uk/2008-09/07_three_beckett_plays/segment_unfolding.skp

I want to get this plugin for sketchup but everytime I try to add it, it doesn't work. I have a mac and I followed the mac instructions like it says in some above comments, but it still isn't working. The only thing that did change was when I reopened sketchup, under my plugins I had a section called "cost" that wasn't there before. Can anyone help me figure out how to get this plug in to work for me? It would be greatly appreciated!!

I am having this same problem. I found that if you open the .rb file, copy and past it into the ruby console, then it will finally appear, but you have to do this each time you open GSU. What can I do to make this a permanent plugin?

hey im using a windows pc and i need ur plugin for uni...i downloaded it, uncompressed it, added it to the plugins folder and it doesnt work..it wont show up in the plugins menu in sketch up..its a rb file and everything and it just wont work HELP!

Great plugin. I use SketchUp to design buildings for a model railroad. Your tool takes the guesswork out of complicated roof structures. I posted a link to your website on a model train forum I subscribe to. http://forum.nscalelimited.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13318&p=28623#p28623 Thank you again.

Just wanted to say , i totally hate the flattery plugin , i believe this plugin is the most amazing plugin there is. Is simple , clean and works perfectly with every single new google sketchup , EVERY TIME!

Just saying coose im scared this amazing plugin could die and be replaced by that flattery thing , cause this is the original tool i want to ALWAYS USE!

Have you made any progress on compensating for thickness? It's not too bad to do one bend by hand, but there are lots of variables involved, including the characteristics of the material. There are several on-line claculators and tutorials, and several Google hits for finding a Sketchup tool, but the latter don't really work. One forum poster noted that Sketchup, as a surface-modeling tool, can't be expected to do anything like this, and he makes sense. I can build models by gluing 2 surfaces together after bending them as zero-thickness surfaces, but it's cumbersome and very limited.

I have been using this plugin for some time, great tool. I have another plugin that rotates the flat panel from unfold tool and drops it onto the red/green plane. Now I can't find where this plugin came from. Anyone have an idea? The Plugin pull down menu says SPP and a sub menu of "Orient groups biggest face up"Works nicely would like to point a friend to it.

Wonderful tool, thank you. My metalwork has never been so accurate as when I started using this to print out wrap-around cutting templates.Note, your download link comes up as "page not found", but the correct link is offered as "Here are some similar pages from this site:" You may wish to update your link though.Cheers, Mark.

We are drawing a geodesic dome.We have ce upon your wonderfull plugin and wanted to thnk you for this excellent invention... in order to do the sewing pattern we are trying to unfold part of the dome.Unfortunatly we have a serious problem, that is taking us hours of reserche (invain)We have the same problem as this guy Ruzter: A some point, 2 of the last triangles will fold into itself instead of out flat. Is there any kind of way out of what seems to be a "bug" ? we can't get the thing about your response : "Jim Foltz said...

Ruzter, make sure your faces are all facing the correct way. Unfold will determine the angle by matching the face normals.

October 30, 2008"We thank you alot for your time, advice and suppporttri and mari

Hey it's me again I would really like to use this plug in for a project I'm working on. does any one have any sugjestions on how i could get it or something like it. The link here is broken. Thank you it would be much apperciated

It seems the plugin is no longer available, it takes me to an internet explorer page. I know it's been quite a while since you posted this, but it would be very useful!!Does anyone still have the plugin? Can you send it to my e-mail please?